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A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale	By : Zoid Category: InuYasha > General Views: 3999 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
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Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale

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Disclaimer: I
don't own it.

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Chapter 6

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Sticks and stones

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A.N.: Someone got
carried away with the violence again and it wasn't me... or maybe it
was.

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The signs were
there, but he'd ignorantly chosen not to heed them – until now.

When the girl he
was supposed to pacify by an innocent declaration of love threw
herself at him and declared her own minus the innocence and plus an
obsessive devotion for him, it sparked suspicion.

When he with
utmost effort managed to rip himself out of her grasp and, more
importantly, out of the whirlwind of his own pent up needs and
dangerously over inflated ego, thus preventing himself from doing
something that might have been the proverbial drop causing his pools
of self disgust to overflow, he declared the suspicion unreasonable.

When, after an
agonizing wait, that wannabe miko finally
managed to terminate their mission but left him to deal with her more
than confused counterpart and said counterpart within seconds came to
the genius conclusion that whatever had transpired was entirely his
fault and acted upon it,
suspicion returned full force.

When, and in the retrospective he was particularly embarrassed at
this obvious lapse of reason, his rattled nerves and skyrocketing
hackles immediately calmed at the sight of the girl's original body
plus enticing yet soothing scent that was so much more concentrated
in the otherwise almost scentless interdimension,
he brushed suspicion aside for a better look.

When that bitch chose to go ballistic over one little joke he'd made
at her cost, painfully reminding him not only of that most prominent
of his flaws but also what it had let him to reveal to her the night
before, he was too fucking furious to see suspicion trying to regain
his attention.

But when they were sent into the second dimension and he took over
his counterpart's body in the very moment he was trying to flee a
violent mob of dwarfs and thus rendered Inuyasha unable to defend
himself 'cause the control over this body was developing with
agonizing slowness he finally realized what
he was in for: one hell of a shitty day.

As soon as he had full control over his loaned body, brushing off
those annoying twits with perhaps a little too much force as well as
saving that trouble magnet of a girl had been delightfully easy but
he wouldn't be fooled again.

Just because this counterpart's body came a lot closer to the
standards, the perfect union of power and efficiency, his own body
had set, didn't make him believe for a second that whatever lay ahead
of him was going to be easy.

He was proved right when that burden of a so called companion he
mercifully enough carried around not only made him fall but also
unable to stay mad at her when he realized
that she was hurt rather dangerously. And that was only the
beginning: first she'd stubbornly refuse to let him take care of her
wound, then while he did, she'd suddenly calm and do another thing he
loathed; she pitied him. He could still feel her stares burning into
his back while he set up a fire but he thought she'd forgotten about
it when he went to catch some fish. But uh-huh, as soon as he
returned she started her Spanish Inquisition she probably thought was
subtle, although it was perfectly clear to him where she was going
with her oh so innocent curiosity. He only went along with it because
he still vividly remembered what she did as soon as she wasn't
entertained in some way for longer than a few minutes and he was
absolutely not in the mood to deal with a crying woman in the
body of a little girl.

And now, like the rotten cherry on this ice cup of crap, this:

He hurried through the forest surrounding their small camp in search
of whatever had scared the forest's population into such tense
silence. Whatever it was, it had to be some kind of youkai,
and a big one, too. There was no other explanation for the underlying
sense of panic that seemed to seep out of every den and nest.
Alarmingly though, none of his senses delivered any hint on what
exactly the danger was. Then suddenly he did hear something.

“Inuyasha?”

He stopped dead and turned. Was that woman out of her fucking mind?
Hadn't he made it absolutely clear that she was to shut her fucking
trap? He hurried back to the camp when he heard her a second time,
her voice louder but also almost visibly drenched with fear. Fucking
wonderful, nothing better than the stench of fear to attract youkai.

And then suddenly he heard it. It must have been lurking in the
darkness completely motionless for to his accurate hearing the faint
sound of its scales clicking against one another was like hand
claps to a human ear. He reached the camp just in time to see
the giant snake youkai shoot towards Kagome
who sat frozen at the fire like a deer caught in the headlights. A
snake youkai, that explained why he hadn't smelled it. While his
counterpart's hearing was excellent his nose was hardly better than a
human one, and snakes didn't smell very intensively to begin with.

He grabbed Kagome and jumped, neatly evading the giant fangs of the
large reptile. As he landed right across the small river, he briefly
considered his options. He was unarmed, too bad that this body had no
claws, and he had Kagome to look after, in that case fleeing might be
the better choice. On the other hand, snake youkai where insanely
fast and persistent and there was a high chance that it had been
attracted by the shard inside Kagome's body
anyway and all that was going to make escaping it close to
impossible. So, instead of wasting his energy by running away for the
rest of the night he might just as well try to finish it there and
then. The decision was made and he jumped once again as the snake
catapulted itself across the river. He grabbed the branch of a tree
above him and swung onto another, then climbed up to the crown. There
he settled the trembling Kagome.

“Stay here; it should have at least a little trouble reaching
you up here.”

She just nodded and he dropped off the branch again. He ripped off
another one on his way down to use as a weapon. He met the youkai
half way up the tree and it opened its mouth, probably hoping he'd
just fall right between its teeth. But he changed the direction of
his fall with a forceful kick against the trunk of the tree and
managed to not only evade the fangs but grab the beast's head
instead. Not wasting another second, he gripped the branch tighter
and rammed it into one of the few vulnerable spots a scaled animal of
this size had to offer: its eye.

The youkai hissed in pain and fell, taking him down with it. He had
to let go of his weapon if he didn't want to be squished beneath his
opponent. He landed a little unbalanced but at least the beast seemed
to have forgotten about the girl in the tree , 'cause it threw itself
at him fiercely, the stick still protruding from its head. It was
quite obvious that the wound had mostly just sent the god
damn thing into an anger fueled
frenzy, making it even quicker than before.

Inuyasha cursed himself for not having stopped to take some tool, a
fork, anything that could be used as a weapon when he'd left the
village.

Well, there was nothing he could do about it now.

The beast came at him again and he hauled himself out of its reach,
but he was too slow this time, or it was too fast more like. He
managed to escape its teeth but when it saw that happening it simply
yanked its head to the side, whacking him into another tree. All air
smashed out of his lungs and his skin tore in many places as he
skidded down through the twigs and branches but at least none of his
limbs felt broken. He hit the ground and had to lie there for a
second because his vision spun viciously. Then suddenly he heard her
scream.

“Shit. Kagome.”

The youkai had obviously thought him dead, or at least knocked out,
and had gone after his original prey again.

The dizziness fell off him and he hurried up to her hiding place,
praying that it wouldn't be too late. Then suddenly the midnight dark
sky above him lit with a blazing flash of pink light and before he
knew what was happening lumps of bloody flesh rained onto him,
followed by the rapidly descending snake youkai. By sheer luck he
avoided getting dragged along but he followed it down nonetheless, to
make sure it really was dead. It wasn't, but it wouldn't be living
very much longer either. In a moment of mercy he jumped onto its head
again and drove the branch still sticking in its eye all the way into
the brain. The demon twitched, then slumped.

He found Kagome trembling and staring ahead with glazed over eyes,
but without a drop of blood on her. She didn't scream this time when
he snatched her and jumped onto another tree. Figuring that the
bloody carcass would sooner or later attract all sorts of unwanted
visitors to their camp he chose to leave the area and spend the rest
of the night elsewhere. That elsewhere turned out to be another
clearing at the bank of a small (the same?) river.

Seeing as Kagome had gone unharmed, he just set her onto the ground
and moved to light another fire, which took him more than twice the
time as usual, mainly because of lacking light but also because his
stupid hands wouldn't stop trembling. It seemed as if his first near
death experience since... around twenty years had not left him
unaffected. That, and he'd probably hit his head when the youkai had
tackled him. There, now he'd gotten the fire to work.

Suddenly a tiny, warm hand touched his forearm.

“You're hurt.”

He glanced down at himself, taking in the various scratches and cuts
marring his exposed chest and visible through what was left of his
trousers, some of them still bleeding.

“Nah, that's ok, it's mainly the youkai's
blood anyway. I'll wash up in the river and that's that.”

“No, let me have a look at it, please, some of them look like
they'll need to be bandaged!” Kagome inched forwards to examine
him closer. He stood briskly and attempted to stomp off.

“Inuyasha!” He suppressed a shudder. There was something
about that tone of her voice... Was it possible to sound concerned
and angry at the same time? It reminded him of something... or
someone...

He sighed. “Alright. I'll go wash up in the river now and then
you can do whatever you think is necessary. Turn around.”

He
stripped out off the ragged remains of his pants and stepped into the
knee deep and ice-cold water, then moved to sit awkwardly
on the stony river ground. The water around him grew even darker for
a while and he watched with mild interest as the soft torrent parted
the bloody cloud into swaying strands. He bent to rinse off his arms
and shoulders, then emerged. He briefly considered not bothering to
fasten the former trousers around his hips again, but, remembering
the seemingly endless struggle he'd had earlier this day when he'd
tried to convince Kagome to take her robe off, he did. At least the
damn cold water had numbed the pain somewhat, it had begun to get on
his nerves a little. He sat down close to the fire, cause the bath
had stolen the last of his body heat.

Kagome on the other hand seemed to have plenty of it. She'd knelt
down besides him wordlessly and had begun examining his wounds. It
turned out that the only one in need of a bandage was an ugly tear on
his right shoulder blade, that, according to Kagome, still had
splinters of bark in it. She ripped off a piece of her robe and
dipped it into the river, then returned and began cleansing the wound
properly. Despite the occasional pain, Inuyasha once again felt a
feeling of peacefulness seeping through him, and he relaxed
involuntarily, too exhausted to really fight it. Then, suddenly, he
knew whom the way Kagome had spoken to him and the gentle way she
took care of his wound reminded him of; his mother.

Now that was a clear sign that he had to have hit his head.

But still, her soft breathing and soft hands, and the occasional
hushing noises she made when he tensed at an especially nasty piece
of bark, those where some of his earliest as well as the most
continuous impressions of his mother. He'd been hurt a lot when he
was little.

He could have told her before, if he hadn't been so lulled into his
sentimental remembrances, the position of the tear allowed no
bandage, at least not with the limited amounts of tearable cloth they
still had. He assured her it'd be ok, and she accepted that after the
obviously obligatory minutes of insisting on the opposite. That girl,
really.

She
claimed that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again tonight
anyway, and that he could thus use the few hours till dawn to
rest a little, but he would have none of it. He wouldn't be able to
sleep anyway, or did she happen to hide a portable mini bar somewhere
in that flimsy robe? That shut her up. So they just remained sitting
at the fire, she staring into it and he staring into the surrounding
wood. Now, with neither of them speaking, he could once again hear
all the reassuring forest noises that had been lacking before. Wait,
neither of them speaking? He threw Kagome an anxious glance. Well she
did look sullen, sad maybe, but it might have been sleep deprivation,
too. Still, he wasn't about to risk anything.

“So what was pink stuff you
finished the youkai off with?” Yay! A subject to talk about
that did not concern his private life.

She looked up from the fire surprised.
“I've been asking myself that.”

“Might have been your miko
abilities. As far as I recall, those could be used not only in
defense but also in offense.”

“Yeah, that's what I thought,
too... It's kinda strange... “

“What?”

“Those two, Sango
and Miroku, that they prepare us so... “

“Shitty? Almost not at all?”

“Hmm.”

“Yup, been wondering about that,
too. A lot of the crap that's happened could very well have been
avoided had they just told us a tiny bit more about what we were to
expect.”

“Yeah, I mean they knew I had
these powers, they coulda just told me that I'm able to fire pink
I-don't-know-what from my hands.”

“Damn right. It's like they don't
really want us to collect
those goddamn shards... “

“But what do
they want then? I mean, considering what they told us so far is true,
forcing our souls over those of our counterparts must be a hell of a
bother for that Sango. Strange.”

“And the
jewel is real; I'd recognize the fucking thing anywhere. And it is
powerful, I tell you that.”

“... about
that...”

“Nope.”

“But why?”

“Cause
it's none of your fucking business. I don't think I could tell you
anything useful anyway. Just that it's fucking powerful for an ugly
pink glass ball.”

“If you say
so...”

Silence fell over
them again, and Inuyasha was at a loss of words. What was there to
say? What a bother that girl was.

“Sooo...”

Now this again. The
Spanish Inquisition part 2. Just as well, as long as she was
occupied. Was it just him, or was the full-blown panic he felt when
he thought about her crying maybe a little obsessive? Well, anyway.

“Sooo...?”
Seemed like they were going to make this a habit.

“So, before
you moved Germany, you lived in the USA?”

“Yeah.”

“For how
long? I mean I assume that you woke up again in Japan, right?”

“Hmm. I
woke up there but I didn't stay very long. There were still too many
people who'd recognize me for what I really
was, so I moved to Paris. I thought in a metropolis of that grandeur
I wouldn't stand out as much.”

“And?”

“Nah.
Didn't really do it for me. I stood out already 'cause I was Asian,
the hair did the rest. And learning French was such a fucking bother,
a Japanese accent sounds kinda strange with that language.”

“So what'd you do?”

“I spent round three years
there, then I really had enough. So I thought that if big cities
weren't for me then maybe wilderness would be. So I moved to Africa.”

“Africa!!”

“Yeah. Was kinda nice until World
War II. I mean the continent is large, but most of the good places
got into hearing range sooner or later, and I'd like to see anyone
relax when they're firing canons and machine guns all around you. And
I sure as hell wasn't about to go live in the friggin'
Sahara.”

“Wow, Africa. That is so... I've
always wanted to go there someday... “Suddenly her face
dropped. Really, how could someone wear her emotions right on her
skin as much as this girl did?

“You still can. We'll just have
to collect all the jewel shards and then you can have your life back,
plus Africa trip.”

Inuyasha had always wondered who'd come
up with the word flabbergasted, and why, but seeing Kagome's face
right then made him guess that this someone had simply sought to
describe exactly that expression.

“Thanks.” Or his. What was
she thanking him for?

“What for?”

“For knowing what I was
thinking about and saying what you did I guess. I didn't realize.
“

“What?”

“I wouldn't have thought you
to be so... perceptive.”

Charming.“Thanks a lot. You
saying you thought I was stupid?”

“No! Just – wait –
you were the one who was all 'Social? Never heard of that.' So don't
blame me for believing you.”

She had a point. But, he had one,
too.“Well it's true. I'm not into the whole interpersonal shit,
it was just plain obvious what you were crying about the last two
days 'cause you just fucking lost your whole life!”

'Smoooooth.'
Hell yeah, the voices were back. But they, too, had a point. She bit
her lip although it was quite clear that it was shaking. Still, all
he could do was watch with anxious fascination
as her eyes grew moist and moister. She seemed to try to suppress it,
but it was no use, the first tears spilled and his eyes followed them
with dread as they ran across her chubby cheeks and dropped from her
chin dramatically. He'd been right, it was even worse when she was
stuck in the body of a little girl. Then she spoke, and her raspy
strangled voice did nothing to improve his state of mind.

“I hate you.
You're right, I just lost everything I had, I was drawn into this
hell of a task that is my only hope to regain what I lost but it
seems to grow more insolvable by the second and all you're doing is
either making fun of me or blocking me out completely, confusing me
with your sudden almost caring antics or driving me insane! I don't
know how you think that's gonna heighten our chances at re-completing
the Shikon no Tama, and if you're so hell bent on not seeing me cry,
and I figured as much 'cause you only ever talk to me when I'm about
to, then I wonder why you're at the same time doing everything to
make me!”

The
fucking brat. What did she think this was to him?
All fun and games?“Get a fucking grip, woman! I don't give a
stinking rat's ass about whether you're crying or not!” 'Not
exactly true but oh well.' “And whoever gave you the impression
I had any caring antics? I don't fucking care about anyone,
including me most of the time, and this trip is not about to change
that.” 'Depends on how you look at it, but still... ' “Blocking
you out? Hell yeah! If you're unable to mind your own fucking
business! Making fun of you? If you insist on acting like a brainless
moron then fuck it, 'cause I'll insist on telling you so as long as
you do! And now let me tell you something about you! I've never met
someone who cared so much about every other breathing creature, and
that's not a compliment! We spent half a day in that shit dimension
completely superfluously just because you thought we were somehow
obliged to 'right the wrong we've caused'. You wanna know what I
think about that? If those people are unable to deal with such
ridiculous crap then they don't fucking deserve anyone's concern!
They're gonna screw their fucking lives up
anyway, sooner or later! So what's the fucking point wasting your
time on it?

“And you're
constantly endangering yourself! You don't seem to waste a second
thinking about your personal safety and that's not a fucking
compliment either, not when I'm the one who's got to save your
ass every time you don't. When that bitch sent her morons to beat me
up, what was the fucking point trying to help me? You knew you'd
never been in a fight before, what could you possibly have done? And
today! What did you fucking think trying to pry a dozen of those
motherfuckers off me would do anyone, most of all you, any good, when
it was obvious that every single one of them was bigger and stronger
than you? You're so fucking selfless and trusting I'm beginning to
believe that you're convinced there's something good in everyone of
us, or some sappy crap like that! There's just no other fucking
explanation for that insane amount of confidence you're walking this
world with and that - “ he had to stop for a deep breath, “-
is no fucking compliment!”

There, take that.

But, she didn't
look all that touched by his reproaches, in fact her lips almost
formed a amused smile. Damn that woman and her roller-coastering
moods!

“Inuyasha,
really, all you're accusing me of is being something like a good
person, which I sure am not, but still.”

“A
good person? It's a fucking miracle you survived till you're
fifteenth birthday with that uncontrollable
naiveté
!” Ack!
Foot in mouth detected. He'd probably never learn.

But at least she
didn't start crying again.

“Why do you
keep doing this? Do you really hate me?”

“What
makes you think I – Ah forget it!”

“Yeah,
forget it. Let's just forget that there are twelve more shards to
collect and eleven more dimensions to travel. And that during all
this time we're going to be each other's only person to relate to.
Why try to get along when we could just as well argue all of the
time? Nothing like constant bad moods to make working together all
the more efficient.”

“I can't
relate to just anyone! In fact, I don't think I ever did!”

“I know it's
not easy but you don't even try!”

Points, points,
where did she get them all from all of a sudden? He glanced up to the
sky as if to maybe find an answer up there but what he did find was
an excuse to interrupt their stupid argument then and there. Dawn
had, unnoticed by the both of them, broken quite a while ago and now
the sun was already spreading her first rays over the morning cold
earth.

“Sun's
already up, I say we go looking for that shard.”

“Oh no,
we don't. Not until we've worked this out.” Why had he known
she'd say that?

“Look, let's
just -”

“ - forget
it, I know”

“Shut the
fuck up and listen to me!”

They glared at each
other, breathing heavily.

“What I was
going to say was, let's go find the shard first and do whatever you
think is necessary as soon as we're back in that interdimension where
we're not in constant danger of being attacked by random youkai that
sense the shard in your body.”

“Are you out
of your mind? Don't you remember what happened to that Sango the last
time we argued inside the interdimension? I think I'll be scarred for
the rest of my li- existence!”

“Sure, I
remember, but if you want to talk about us arguing less then it might
even be rather productive if we had to remain absolutely calm.
Besides, those two owe us for the shit they've been telling us
anyway.” Wherever that crap he fed her came from, Inuyasha
hardly cared, as long as they'd stop these futile discussions now.
He'd just find another excuse as soon as she'd start again. But she
still seemed to be a little reluctant. What more was there to do to
convince – ah, perfect.

“And then, if
you were worried about our counterparts' reputations back in the
other dimension, think about what people will think of yours as soon
as she returns from her jolly trip with the freakish bastard. I'd say
the shorter she stays away the less harm is done.”

She gasped.
Hadn't thought about that, huh?

“Oh my god,
you're right! The poor little girl... Ok.”

“Ok?”

“Yeah, lets
get going.”

Woohoo! He bent
down to grab her once again. She stopped him with an upraised finger.

“But don't
you think I'll just forget that we're far from having worked anything
out between us. I'll get back to you about that.”

“Keh!
Whatever.” He positioned her against his chest and took off.

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“There! I can
feel something!”

Inuyasha had this
time been playing closer attention to her and had therefore been
warned by her tensing before she yelled out in excitement. He
finished his last leap and came to a smooth halt on a fallen tree.

They hadn't been
running around the forest for long, but that came as not that much of
a surprise, that girl's Shikon no Tama radar had a rather impressive
range, he'd give her that.

“Yeah?
Where's it come from?”

She pointed to
his right. “From there somewhere. It's still really very
faint.”

He took off
into the direction she'd indicated without another word. If he wasn't
gravely mistaken, and he was pretty convinced he was not 'cause if
there was one thing he had it was an almost supernatural sense of
orientation – he snorted, like he wasn't supernatural all over,
anyway – they were headed south-west, which meant they were
pretty much moving parallel to the imaginary boundary between the two
territories that probably lay somewhere in the middle of the wood
separating the tribes.

“Tell me as
soon as the direction isn't right anymore.”

“Sure.”

They covered a
lot of ground rather quickly, Kagome occasionally correcting the
course he took a little, and before the silence between them could
have grown uncomfortable, the forest opened and they stood at the
feet of a small hill.

“I think the
shard is up there somewhere.”

He squinted his
eyes.

“Yeah, I
can see something like a ruin up there. The youkai was supposed to
live in a ruin, right?”
“Hmm. So what do we do now?”

What kind of a
question was that? “We're gonna go up there, kill the youkai
and take the shard.”

“But,
after last night, don't you think that it'd be better to be a little
more cautious? That thing yesterday was pretty dangerous already and
it didn't have a shard.”

“Nah,
that's ok, it caught me unprepared, is all. This time I'm gonna make
me some weapons beforehand, so I won't have to improvise again. That
should do, this body is quite strong.”

“If you
say so... “

“Look, if
it makes you feel better, I wasn't about to burst in there and then
see what's actually going on. We're gonna sneak up and try to catch
it off guard, I'm not completely insane yet!”

“It's just
that we've done enough bad already, it would just be horrible if one
of our counterparts died.”

“I won't
die, and as long as I don't die, you're not gonna die either.”

She fell into
silence after that, obviously not too convinced but at least she
wouldn't object anymore either.

He collected
whatever might be, with little effort, turned into a weapon and
managed to produce six primitive spears from some sticks and stone
and Kagome's former belt he still carried around. Said girl watched
him with the same mixture of perplexity and curiosity she'd watched
him light the fire with the other day. His primitive survival skills
seemed to be utterly fascinating to her. He finished fixing the last
stone to the last stick and eyed his work critically. Why oh why
didn't his counterpart have claws?

Inuyasha mounted
the hill with the caution Kagome insisted on and wiggled through the
bushes atop it without breaking a single twig. He'd once been rather
good at hunting. Obviously, that was something you didn't forget
after thirty years of urban laziness.

“The shard
hasn't moved in a while.” Kagome's whisper broke the thick
silence engulfing the whole hilltop. There was absolutely no life
around. The mighty aura of the youkai inhabiting the ruin ahead of
them probably kept even the cicadas away.

“Perhaps it's
asleep or something.”

Yeah. Or lurking
for some idiot animal, or shard hunters, to stumble into its trap. No
point panicking her, though.

The ruin proved to
remind Inuyasha oddly of the scenario Sango and Miroku had greeted
them with the last time, but he didn't fancy Greek architecture that
much anyway. Those assemblies of pillars all looked pretty much the
same to him. Then, on a closer glance he discovered that the pillars
here only marked the entrance to a way larger building behind them.

“So, how
close is it?”

“Can't
really tell, but it feels... about as far as the girl was when I told
you we should be able to see her, you know, when -”

“Yeah, I
know.” So around a hundred meters, a little more perhaps.

“Ok, that
means if the spider's inside the ruin, it's pretty much at the far
end of it, or, if it's outside somewhere, hiding directly behind it.
Either way, I'd say it's better to approach it from the outside.
Perhaps there's a window at the far end of the ruin, or a wall broken
down.”

“That seems
to make sense.”

“What do
you mean, 'seems'?”

“Well, if
I may remind you, the last time you decided about our course
of action we both got beaten up.”

“Keh!
First of all you got beaten up, me, that was just scratches,
and then if you hadn't interfered, those wimps would have been
no trouble at all! They just caught me off guard 'cause you had to
lecture me about how stupid my plan was!”

“That
doesn't make the plan itself any less stupid! One against ten, a
normal person would want to avoid such a situation, even if they were
convinced they'd make it!”

“Well,
sorry I'm not normal, but, just in case it managed to escape your
attention, I'm not even human!”

“This is
not about being human, it's about possessing a brain!”

“A brain? Who
was the one of us to-”

“Ssssshhhhh!”

“What-”

She clamped a
chubby hand over his mouth.

“The shard
has moved!” She whispered, “I think we might have alarmed
the youkai.”

“Fuck!”
But it figured. They had – again – been arguing quite
vehemently.

“Then again,
our chances at really catching the thing off guard were close to
non-existent anyway. Spiders have such accurate senses; they feel the
tremors of your steps if you're approaching them.”

“Thank you.
That really calmed me.” Irony? Sarcasm even? What was up with
that girl? Since when had she started being her bitchy self again –
wait, had she ever not been like that? Damn her and her mood
swings! Jeez, once he thought he about knew what she was like she
changed again. Confusing.

Well it couldn't be
helped. They'd have to face the thing sooner or later, so why not
sooner, as long as the midday sun was up and they at least could
fully exploit the advantage of their superior sight?

“Well since
it knows we're here anyway, let's just wait till it comes. It should
have sensed the shard already, and will want to have it, maybe even
enough for it to change its tactics and try a direct attack. And
we'll be warned since you can- “

“The
shard is approaching.”

“Like I said.
Ok, stay here; I'll do what I can. And fucking don't even
think about interfering, you got that?”

“Yup.”

What, no
resistance, no discussions? Confusing. What else was there to say?

“But
– IIIaaaahhhhh!”

And,
though he'd probably seen worse a few hundred years ago, Inuyasha
struggled to suppress a shudder as the giant youkai came scrambling
out of the ruin. It was fucking hideous! One of the hairy ones, with
eight unsettlingly large and intelligent looking black eyes and, what
was worse, a hind body the size of a fucking van! He glanced
from the youkai to the spears he'd stuck under his arm. How on earth
was he supposed to kill that monstrosity with these?

“Where's
the shard?”

“On
the underside of its belly, I think.”

Fucking
perfect, the least accessible place possible.

He
sprinted towards the youkai, hell bent on not letting it get even
close to Kagome. Reluctant to waste his precious spears he picked up
a large stone and hurled it at the spider demon to get an idea on how
easily hurt it was. The stone, a boulder almost, hit the demon's back
– and just bounced off it. Yay! So he was facing an opponent
that was about ten times heavier than him, faster, stronger most
likely, had double the limbs and a body hard as armour. The only
advantage he had was his humanoid intelligence, which he heavily
doubted he even possessed, seeing as he was, after all, currently
running head first into said opponent.

But the
reflected boulder dropped onto one of the youkai's legs and broke it
with a crunch. So at least the legs were breakable. He'd just have to
break them all, turn the beast onto its back and extract the shard...

Well, at
least he had a plan now...

The
spider stumbled but managed to catch itself a little too quickly for
Inuyasha's tastes. He had no more time to ponder, though; he was in
jumping range now. And jump he did, directly onto the demon's back.
He attacked the joint of the right hind leg, but he only managed a
few thrusts until the youkai began to buck wildly to throw him off.
Which it achieved quite effortlessly. Inuyasha hit the stony ground
hard and the spears clattered around him. He could feel the wound on
his back, that had only just stopped bleeding, reopening again. But,
he ignored the pain and rolled away when the youkai came at him with
that horribly large spider fang mouth thing braced apart to snap him
in two.

Stones,
he needed more stones, the spears were more or less inefficient. He
picked up another small boulder. The youkai attacked
again, and he had the choice: staying, smashing two legs with one
stone but risking a bite, or evading and missing the chance.

The second of the hairy
limbs shattered under the heavy stone in his hands with a squishy
cracking noise as before, the same time as the spider's fang tore
into his side. Within the brief moment before the pain would come he
picked up a smaller stone and rammed it into one of the youkai's
eyes. Then his body bent against his will as his brain registered the
harmed tissue. Adrenaline spread through his system and slowed the
action around him down considerably, or he himself sped up, either
way, he had no trouble hurrying out of the range of the spider's now
wildly thrashing legs. Apparently, it felt
the pain of its lost eye a lot more intensively than that of its lost
legs.

He pressed his hands to his
side to stop the bleeding a little, the wound wasn't fatal, at
least, all the while keeping an eye on his adversary and Kagome, who
had indeed stayed where he left her and watched him anxiously. Since
it still trembled in agony, he considered it safe enough to grab
another stone and approach the youkai again.

This time he smashed another
leg and got away unharmed. The giant youkai was moving a lot clumsier
now, with half of its legs hurt. For the first time since he'd seen
the goddamn thing, he felt like it was
actually possible to kill it.

He came by the pile of
spears and picked one up. Maybe he should rather try hitting its
brain through one of the eyes, like he'd done with the snake youkai.
But a thrown spear wouldn't have enough momentum to tear through that
amount of tissue, he'd have to get close again.

The youkai in question had
re-found its balance, more or less, and was now attacking. It came
onto him fast and he braced himself to leap away. Then, suddenly, as
he tensed to do just that, pain shot through him, pain of an
intensity that made white lights flash before his eyes. He dropped to
the ground and that probably saved his life. The spider's fangs
missed him and the beast stumbled over him.

'Poison. Fuck.”

You'd think that a spider
that large simply wouldn't need to be poisonous, but nuh-uh! He
scrambled away trembling wildly, thrashing almost, but then his body
finally managed to send the last of his spare adrenaline through his
body and the pain faded. He rose and turned in time to see the youkai
doing the same. He leaped while it still swayed and landed on its
back again. He went for its eyes directly and rammed the spear into
it with all the strength he could muster. But, it threw him off
before he could do any fatal harm. During the short flight, brutally
ended by the suddenly appearing ground, Inuyasha tried to recall
anything useful he knew about spiders but - quelle surprise! -
he didn't know a thing. He'd never been in a situation where he was
unable to use his claws against one, and more than one swipe had
hardly ever been necessary anyway.

To his utter shame, he fell
unconscious for a split second or two, the impact really shattered
his already fragile constitution. He came to his senses again as, for
the second time inside this dimension, he heard Kagome scream in
terror. He forced himself up and stumbled over to her. The spider
hadn't bothered with him anymore as soon as he was out of it, or
meant to use his momentary weakness to get the shard from Kagome, who
knew, anyway. Inuyasha jumped for all he was worth, throwing himself
between the girl and the spider's fangs. He hurled her away seconds
before the fangs ripped his flesh a second time, though not as deeply
as before 'cause he fell and scrambled out of their reach. Very
dignified, he thought as he stood shakily. To think that there had
been a time when he'd killed youkai of that size with a flick of his
wrist.

“You alright?”
he yelled, remembering Kagome, whom he'd thrown away without
bothering where really. He didn't really have the time to await her
answer cause the youkai charged again, but he thought he'd heard a
grunted “I'm ok but-” while he picked up another stone.
He was about to lift it and smash another leg, which could very well
have been the last he needed to unbalance the spider completely when
another spasm of pain shook him. He was forced to drop the boulder
and curled into a ball to counter the mind blowing agony, but that
proved to be a rather bad idea seeing as he'd just jumped to increase
the impact of the boulder. He crashed into the ground, felt a rib or
two break as they connected with some unfortunately placed stones and
blackness fell upon him again. He struggled, but in vain. The last
thing he saw was the brutally smashed eye of a giant spider, that
strangely reminded his foggy mind of the first time he had to eat raw
meat, after his mother's death.

He'd caught a rabbit but
ripped it apart almost completely in the process.

“Gee, that was - “

“Wake up! Please
Inuyasha!”

The voice suddenly ringing
in his ears confirmed the suspicion he'd been having for quite a
while: Those eight-eyed dancing rabbits couldn't possibly be real,
they had to be a part of some really weird dream.

He tried to open his eyes
and succeeded, but what he saw was far less unsettling. Someone's
face was hovering but an inch from his own and calling his name.

He attempted to shove the
person away but his arms wouldn't quite obey.

“Inuyasha! Please wake
up, it's still alive and I don't know whether I'll be able to do that
again!”

Wait! He knew that voice.

“Kagome?”

“Thank god, you're
awake!”

She helped him sit up.

“I did the pink stuff
again, but I haven't really figured out when it works and when not.
The youkai seems to be – ah! It's rising! Do something!”

Inuyasha glanced around
quickly and found what she was talking about: The spider youkai lay a
few meters away and was indeed attempting to rise, but a considerable
part of its hind body seemed to be missing.

“You did that?”

“Yeah, dunno how, it
was about to rip you apart and I actually only, you know, reached for
you and screamed your name, but then the pink stuff came from my
hands and hit the youkai.”

Judging by the size of the
hole, that had to have been one enormous blast of spiritual energy.
That girl sure was powerful.

The spider was now standing
on shaking legs and Inuyasha realized that it was about time he
really did something. A short check of his condition brought up
nothing too promising: two ribs broken, scratches all over and, most
probably, fatal poisoning. But, he was still able to walk and throw
stones, he estimated, so it'd have to do. He'd just have to be quick,
'cause judging by the way his body shook uncontrollably, the poison
was already attacking his nerves.

But, happily, killing the
youkai was a matter of seconds, another stone, another leg, rendering
it unable to move and he could easily drive the spear still sticking
in one of its eyes all the way into its brain.

With his opponent dead it
seemed as though the last of his strength decided to call it a day
and he just slid to the ground, not intending to move another muscle
until they'd left this rotten dimension again.

Kagome came and did
something really spooky that from his position looked like she just
reached through the youkai's shell and extracted the shard, but he
wasn't all that sure 'cause he was slowly beginning to lose his
sight.

“Are you alright?”
Kagome knelt down to examine him.

“Poisn.” huh,
so the poison was already affecting his brain. Which might have
explained the trance like calm he felt, instead of a slight panic or
a little remorse or whatever is expected from someone who is dying.
He gave it another try.

“Poison”

“You mean the spider
was poisonous?”

He nodded.

“But that's horrible!
Doesn't it hurt?”

“S'ok.” he
assured, although the pain was actually bordering on unbearable. But,
it wasn't like she could possibly do anything about it, so why worry
her?

“Are you – is he
gonna...?”

“Die? Yeah.”
Even if it weren't for the poison, he'd probably die of the rib
slowly penetrating his lungs. Must have happened when he was lifting
the last stone. The sniffling alarmed him. She wasn't – she was
crying. Great. What'd he done now?

“Stop that!”

“What?”

“Crying!”

“But it's all because
of me! Just because I can't really use my powers you had to risk your
life protecting me! And now you're dying! And the poor boy whose body
you've taken will die, too.”

“S'ok,
'tis what I got to do... Protect you.” And it wasn't like the
his hanyou counterpart would miss being bullied by the dwarfs all
that much, if he still was in his right mind.

“Yeah I know it's your
job, but you sure aren't supposed to endanger yourself the way you
did when you threw yourself in front of me! No one can expect you to,
that's just insane!”

“You rather... I'd let
you... die?”

“Yes! If saving me
means getting yourself killed!”

“No sense.”

“What?”

Talking was getting
increasingly difficult now. “You... make... no sense.”

“Why – oh my
god, sorry! I'm gonna get us out right now! Then you won't hurt any
more.”

She placed the shard in her
upturned hands and began whatever it was she had to do to make it
fuse with her.

Inuyasha watched her through
heavy lidded eyes. That girl made absolutely no sense. She couldn't
possibly have meant what she just said? She wanted him to be selfish?
To value his own life higher than hers, or rather, since it wasn't
really their own bodies they were wasting here, rather put her in
pain instead of himself? She must bee out of her mind. She didn't
even like him, why did she care about his well-being?
Out of her mind, indeed.

And again reminding him of
his mother. She too had never wanted him to protect her when the
people, in the village they'd fled to, threw stones at her, although
he was, even at the age of four, already way tougher than her. But,
she always walked on proudly and feigned indifference, and when he
asked her about it later she always said that since none of what was
happening was his fault he shouldn't be hurt because of it. He'd
argue that it couldn't be her fault either, cause she'd told him that
she'd loved his father, and that it was never wrong to do something
out of love, But, she'd say that she deserved those stones because
she had not acted upon her love when she should have, because she'd
feared the consequences, the hurt. She'd never explained her words
and so Inuyasha wasn't entirely sure what they meant, even now.

“Aw, crud!”
Kagome dropped her hands into her lap. “I still have no idea
what I'm supposed to do! It just happened the last time, but I don't
know how!” She looked at him concernedly. “I'm sorry, it
might take a while. Will you be alright?”

His
tongue felt thick and heavy but he managed to form a word around it.

“Yeah.”

“Really I - “

“Hurry – dying.”
Why was she still talking if she was so concerned about his pain?

“Soon? Oh my god, that
must hurt so much! Is there anything I can do to ease the pain? I
really don't know how much longer it will take.”

Well she could try killing
him now, that'd sure ease the pain considerably, but he couldn't
possible ask her to do that. Suddenly a picture appeared in his mind,
a memory, probably stirred up because he'd been thinking about his
mother.

“Head... lap?”

“Huh? Lap? You want to
put your head on my lap?”

He nodded, blushing. What
had he been thinking? There was no way she'd -

“Ok, come here, I'll
help you.” She patted her lap.

She all but pulled him onto
her thighs and he suppressed a contented sigh when the strain in his
neck eased... well, and when her scent soothed the pain a little. She
really did smell nice, no matter the dimension it seemed. But, he
wasn't about to let her know that.

She started her meditation
again, her face a mask of determined concentration. Inuyasha closed
his eyes and was lulled into a sleep his counterpart would most
probably never wake up from again by her even breathing when suddenly
drops of warm liquid dropped onto his temple.

“Why... cry?” he
couldn't even open his eyes any more, he estimated he had another
five minutes, maybe ten to live.

“It doesn't work! I
just don't know what to do I – I- “ she broke out sobbing
and whined something incoherent. Then she squealed.

“Ah! It's working!
Fuse! Fuse already!”

And she it really seemed to
have worked, cause she went limp and didn't talk anymore, which
probably meant that she was leaving her counterpart's body. Fucking
Miroku, couldn't take him out first even if he was dying!

“What's –
where?” Ah, so her counterpart had awoken. This would be fun.

“Kitan? What are you –
IIIIIIEEEEK!” She'd probably discovered the spider.

Either he was beginning to
leave the dimension or he really was dying now, the feel of this body
slowly got weaker.

'Well, at least this one
didn't punch me.” he thought as the sounds and smells dulled
into nothing.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

A.N.: Yeah, I know it's been
long, but schools a bully one year before graduation (or whatever
'abitur' is wherever you come from). I had to write an essay in
French! Twelve pages! I feel I deserve some pity... maybe... Or not,
since I chose to do it.

Anyway, this is my first
beta read chapter, I'm sure every thing's a little easier to read now

THANK YOU ALVIDA!!

... now with that said, read
and leave a review if you have the time...
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A Parallel Dimensional Fairytale